


A Portrait of Hope

by TheIllusiveMantis



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Despair warning, F/M, Gen, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-22
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-12 15:11:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/812966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIllusiveMantis/pseuds/TheIllusiveMantis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Hope's Peak Academy produces a graduate. [First game spoilers; chapter 2 AU.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Portrait of Hope

**Author's Note:**

> AU version of Chapter 2's trial; Mondo keeps his mouth shut, and Togami's fun diversion backfires. Mentions of Oowada/Ishimaru, Kirigiri/Naegi. Spoilers for pretty much the entire game. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

 

When it comes down to it, there's really no way to say _who_ Fujisaki was meeting that night.

 

Kirigiri looks intense, and for once, Naegi thinks he can see a hint of fear creep across her face. One of the guys is responsible, but which one, and how to prove it?

 

To the debate, there seems to be no end in sight, and they've all begun talking themselves in circles. On the subject of Fujisaki's jersey, Oowada goes quiet, Naegi notices, but that's _not enough_. They try outlining who was where, but everyone steadfastly maintains that they were in their own rooms.

 

It's at this point Monobear yawns loudly and decides they're going to hold a vote.

 

Togami's voice grows strained, a last-ditch effort. “I've already told you,” he repeats to his classmates, his frustration evident. “Oowada Mondo is the one responsible. I witnessed him leaving the girls' locker room.”

 

“You sure took a long time bringing it up!” Asahina declares angrily, her eyes narrowed. “For someone we've already proven _manhandled_ poor Fujisaki-chan's body with the intention of deceiving us!”

 

“My kyoudai is absolutely _not_ responsible!” Ishimaru concurs, his loud voice filling the whole room as he throws the words out at Togami's face. “You will not pin this gruesome crime on him!!”

 

“I've already called the vote!” Monobear says, and his tone is far less indulging this time. “You bastards will quiet down and settle your conflicts with your voting machines!”

 

The results aren't unanimous, but there _is_ a majority. 6 votes for Togami Byakuya. 3 votes for Oowada Mondo, 1 vote for Genocider Syo, and 1 vote for Hagakure Yasuhiro. The wheels settle on Togami's likeness; confetti showers down from nowhere and settles around the feet of the student jurors.

 

“Congrattttulations!” Monobear announces, and everyone lets out a breath, “To the graduating class of Hope's Peak Academy!”

 

A single spotlight illuminates the figure of one Oowada Mondo, suddenly a separate entity in the midst of his classmates. Asahina gasps in horror and flinches away. Kirigiri doesn't need to turn her head.

 

Naegi feels a wave of sickness settling over his stomach.

 

“...Yeah, it was me,” Oowada admits, after a long, torturous pause. “I did it. I... I really did kill that kid!!”

 

The horror in the room is tangible, and nothing else, until Ishimaru's pained sounds invade the silence.

 

“K-kyoudai,” he chokes out, with none of his trademark conviction. “Why are you going along with this!! Tell them – it was none other than Togami Byakuya who committed this heinous act!” He finishes on a strong note, but Oowada's downturned face says everything and more.

 

“Upupupupu....!” Monobear can't suppress his glee as he eyes the unfolding scene. “There's no need to be jealous, Ishimaru-kun. Your friend Oowada-kun studied hard and earned his right to graduate! And here I heard you were such a top student!”

 

“I'm not proud of this, okay!” Oowada's voice rings out, clearly enough for everyone to hear, and as he faces Monobear his voice is strained and his eyes are fiery. “I made a promise! A- a man's promise! A promise I said I'd keep no matter what!” The words hit Naegi's ears numbly, and he can do nothing but stare at the face of his desperate friend. “It was an accident! I lost my temper and-” _Upupupupu_ \- “It could only be _one_ of us! Don't you understand?! Sooner or later, it was only going to turn out like this!”

 

“No way... no way no way no way!” Fukawa mutters, somewhere to Naegi's right. At some point, Syo had left them. “We're not all going to die here, are we?”

 

No one answers her. They're hoping, Naegi knows, as _he's_ hoping: that this game was all somehow a cruel joke, designed to make them hate each other. That the graduation rule was an exaggeration. That Monobear had changed his mind in the interest of making things more interesting. It was hard to feel very hopeful over the sounds of Ishimaru's strangled gasps.

 

“Say, Oowada-kun,” Monobear interjects. “It would be a shame to leave this school without a proper send-off to your classmates, right?”

 

Oowada's eyes display the same confusion as the rest of them. Then he understands, and they widen. “No,” he says once, then louder, again. “Let me out of this lovin' school...! Let me out, _now_!”

 

What happens ' _now'_   is different. In the time it takes them to blink, the jurors' stands snap to life with a robotic _whirr_. As they open up, a mechanical arm emerges to seize each student around the waist, forcing them down into a seat that had sprung up from the floor behind them. Naegi feels a presence around the dome of his head. His eyes flit over to Yamada, the rest of the students, and seeing the eggshell-shaped apparatus around their heads, he gets the sudden absurd impression that they're all at the salon about to get a perm.

 

“As we prepare to send our graduating class out into the world, let's take some time to reflect on all the happy memories we've had here at Hope's Peak Academy!”

 

And then, everything goes dark.

 

Naegi remembers, suddenly, everything. He remembers study sessions with Kirigiri. He remembers standing in the audience at one of Maizono's concerts, trying to look at Leon beside him without a hint of jealousy. He remembers, suddenly, having an ice cream cone with Fujisaki. He remembers standing in line for hours with Hagakure and Celes, feeling hopelessly bored at first and overcome by laughter as they all suddenly recall Togami Byakuya get slapped in the face by Fukawa Touko. Yamada gets published in _Jump_. Oogami and Asahina run with him, and make good on their promise not to make fun. Enoshima and Ikusaba try to edge him in Kirigiri's direction; he refuses, turning red in the face, and when they continue taunting him he turns a corner and runs straight into Oowada's back, in turn pushing a breathless Ishimaru harder up against a row of lockers.

 

He experiences that pang of fear again as Oowada threatens to kill him if he opens his big mouth.

 

The sudden burst of information clobbers him well enough. By the time he's able to open his eyes again, the despair is evident on everyone's face.

 

But nowhere more evident than on their good friend Oowada-kun.

 

“I killed him,” he says, simply. “I-”

 

When Naegi looks at the faces of his classmates, it's a haunting duality; he sees two people, two sets of memories, looking out through the same scared two eyes.

 

“Kiyotaka,” Oowada says, looking at Ishimaru as though he's seeing him for the first time.

 

“Isn't it funny?” Monobear muses, and his tone is sickly sweet. “Killing someone to keep a secret everyone already knew! They say at Hope's Peak Academy your classmates are your closest friends and confidants – It was pretty careless to share all those secrets with them, don't you think? And risk someone like me finding out about those kinds of things...!”

 

“You stole our memories,” Kirigiri asserts, but... there's not surprise there. There's a hollow edge in her voice, one that fills Naegi with grief. “You killed...”

 

“My own sister? Yes,” The bear casually agrees. “And your annoying daddy too, upupupu!”

 

Old memories flush out the new; Naegi can't help but think now how strange Ikusaba-san had looked, with her wig pulled tight into pigtails like her sister's. Of course he hadn't noticed it before.

 

“I don't understand!” Hagakure laments. “What's going on? Monobear... was spying on us? Even back then??”

 

It had taken two years, but Naegi remembers now: the time when they had all opened up to each other. They had opened their hearts and let out their purest trust. Maizono spoke of the vile things she'd had to do to get noticed; Leon about an unstable home life; even from Togami they'd managed to glean from half-discarded comments that his parents had had very little time to dedicate to him or his upbringing, at least in person.

 

“And you knew... about _her??”_ It's Fukawa now, Naegi hadn't looked over at her before, but there are tears in her eyes. He remembers _this_ , too; remembers tears and medication and Asahina holding her hands and telling her she'd be ok, that Syo would never come back again. “H-how?”

 

“I'm not a mind reader, you know.” Monobear sighs, exasperated. “I should have mentioned before, anything you said back then could and would be used against you in court. Or as incentive... to _kill!_ Like our friend Mondo-kun here.”

 

“That's unexpectedly low, Enoshima Junko,” they hear, and it's Togami, speaking for the first time since being falsely accused. His tone is different. Darker. More red-hot. “Storing up the vulnerabilities of others... keeping them only for yourself while you took away our memories... You created the perfect level playing field, where the only one holding the cards was yourself.”

 

“Hahaha!” Monobear laughs, and the way Naegi hears it, it's a break in character. “I knew I'd have an admirer in you, Togami-kun!”

 

Naegi waits for Togami to respond. Somehow, it feels like he wants to argue. Sakura doesn't let him. “We will not listen to your attempts to divide us, Monobear," she intones, bold as ever. “Especially now that our bonds of friendship have been restored to us... The only thing you can do now is to kill us.”

 

A silence passes, and at first, they all make the mistake of thinking it's a challenge.

 

“Hmm... you may be right...” Monobear looks dejectedly at the floor for a moment, before perking up a second later. “Well, in that case, it's finally time for the ultimate send-off!” A wooden stand comes up from the ground in front of him. There's one big, red button. “I've prepared a special graduation show just for you!”

 

“Don't you dare!!” Oowada snaps, his voice breaking. “Don't do it! ...Please!”

 

“I won't be delayed any longer,” Monobear replies, his voice curt and snippy. “It's time to begin the entertainment!” He produces a tiny mallet and pops the button squarely on the nose.

 

**[ GRADUATION TIME, HELD BACK ANOTHER YEAR: PROJECTION OF THE FUTURE OF HOPE'S PEAK'S MOST HOPELESS STUDENTS]**

 

In Naegi's head swirling around there is a theatrical tune. There's not even a pause, but suddenly he isn't in the courtroom anymore. For a while, he struggles to fathom where he is, but he can feel that he's sweating.

 

_Is this it? Is this... my execution?_

 

The lights slowly illuminate the scene.

 

He's in a workshop. No- a factory. There's an assembly line in front of him. He's holding a wrench and a dirty rag. His clothes are filthy with grease and perspiration. Suddenly he's aware of the others here, too: he sees his friends all around him, each at their own workstation.

 

As if for the first time, he notices the terrifying aspect of the heavy machinery grinding away above them.

 

“Overseer Oowada is going to be managing all of you bastards who didn't study hard enough to land your perfect job,” they hear. It's Monobear's voice, projecting through a loudspeaker, though where that loudspeaker is, they couldn't say. Towards the ceiling the room gets hazier and hazier with a sort of pink fog; for all they know, the equipment stretches on forever.

 

Naegi sees a prototype for their finished project hanging on the wall. The design is intricate, fearsome almost, with the likenesses of tigers and dragons and demons influencing the shape of the individual parts, but it's definitely recognizable as a motorcycle.

 

Somewhere out of sight, perhaps beyond that opaque panel of glass, Oowada desperately hits a button. “Hey!! All of you find someplace away from all that- stop working!!, it's dangerous, dammit!”

 

A screech of the PA. “ _Oowada-san says you bastards should all work harder!_ ” Monobear announces loudly. “Remember, you're all a bunch of good for nothing drop-outs, and he holds the key to your entire future! Get to work!”

 

Naegi has never stepped inside a factory in his life, but somehow, he works. He knows just what to do; his fingers are deft with the wrench. A skeletal motorcycle scoots up in front of him, he screws on a bolt, attaches a piece, and it continues on its way. Another one instantly takes its place. Kirigiri is working opposite him. Each piece he attaches, she mirrors in turn. They establish a rhythm. Maybe, maybe they can get through this, maybe-

 

They hear the first scream, and an impossibly loud crash that shakes Naegi down to his very foundation. Nothing but Celes' skirts can be seen from beneath the dense metal bar that had struck her from some invisible height.

 

“Celes-san did not adhere to the company's very essential dress and safety code!” Monobear announces. “Such failure to adapt! The industry is a more productive place without her!”

 

Hardly a beat passes before the next horror occurs. One moment Hagakure, Oogami, and Asahina are all fumbling with a tire; the next, a burst of fire from the incinerator next to them blazes forward with an oppressive heat, and when Naegi's vision returns he sees only cinders where his friends were.

 

His tears are choking him. He can't suppress the urge to work. Suddenly he knows in his heart that's all he was made for. He turns a screw, secures a piece of metal, and the next one comes. Turns a screw, secures the metal, next one comes.

 

“Uh-oh! It looks like mischievous Byakuya-sama is refusing to work!!” Indeed, Togami is standing defiantly in a corner of the room, and his manner seems almost excessively flippant, like a caricature. _Work_ , Naegi silently urges him, but Togami won't listen. Only in his eyes is there something strange; something like confusion and terror.

 

Somehow Monobear is in the room with them now, where he wasn't before. He's wearing overalls and holding a wrench. Naegi turns away from Togami just in time, but he still feels a sickening splash of something wet on his cheek, and hears the crack of bone, again and again and again.

 

He doesn't want to keep working, when his friends are dying all around them, and he knows that he's next. Yamada disappears from a narrow walkway above a pool of industrial sludge. Before long Fukawa's skirt has gotten caught in the pull between two gears; he can only watch helplessly as the gigantic cogs drag her deeper, deeper into their coils, into the junction where they crunch together, until-

 

“Naegi-kun,” he hears Kirigiri's soft voice, and the world collapses around him. For a moment it's just the two of them, working in tandem, and Naegi thinks, maybe if they just assemble a couple more, they'll be done with this pointless exercise, and the two of them can quit this job and never look back.

 

Naegi can't hear him, but somewhere on the other side of that glass, Monobear is cackling quietly. “Do you see that, Oowada-kun? THAT is the true super high school-level despair you can only get from the talented bastards at Hope's Peak Academy!"

 

“Don't kill them,” Oowada is begging. Oowada is _begging_. “You've killed so many!! Even a heartless bitch like you can be satisfied with that!!” There are tears at the corners of his eyes, it's okay, he doesn't care about being strong anymore. “Leave me Kiyotaka... let him live and I won't dedicate the rest of my life to wrecking your miserable face!!”

 

It's at that exact moment that a wayward chain catches Ishimaru around the throat. Naegi hears only half a protest. When he finally turns around, the chain is in a double coil around the hall monitor's neck, lifting him off the ground, the grease permanently defacing his white uniform. He struggles.

 

Until they hear the _snap_. 

 

There's nothing else to look at, so Naegi goes back to his work, and Kirigiri goes back to hers, opposite him on the assembly line. They work together in perfect harmony as the room grows hazy and his thoughts become strange and warm.

 

His thoughts are somewhere else. His thoughts are with his family; his mom, his dad, his sister.

 

He's back at Hope's Peak Academy.

 

Meanwhile, in a brightly-lit room overseeing the hopeless, endless, unforgiving daily grind going on beneath them, Oowada sits otherwise alone with a talking bear. 

 

“You should really bring your workplace up to building codes, Oowada-kun,” Monobear scolds. “I think you have a gas leak!”

 

Mondo watches the way only one kind of person can: the kind of person who risked everything without knowing it, and lost every scrap of anything worth caring about.

 

The execution is over, as Kirigiri and Naegi succumb, and the despairification is complete. There's not a shred of disappointment left in Mondo's body as Monobear opens the heavy wrought iron doors to the school and throws him outside. He knows there are no more Crazy Diamonds. No man's promise to fulfill. He knows he killed Chihiro for nothing. He knows he killed _Kiyotaka_ for nothing.

 

He knows he killed Aoi, and Sakura, and Yasuhiro and Celes and Makoto and Kyouko and Hifumi-

 

-even Togami and Fukawa he killed,

 

for nothing.


End file.
